The Sosnowiec Symposium on Communication across Cultures is to bring together an international group of researchers who study interpersonal communication, its cross-cultural and intercultural aspects in particular. The term ‘cross-cultural’ is used […] to refer to the communication process that is comparative in nature (e.g., comparing conflict styles in cultures X, Y and Z), while the term ‘intercultural’ is used to refer to the communication process between members of different cultural communities (e.g., business negotiations between a Dutch importer and an Indonesian exporter) (Ting-Toomey, 1999:16).

The special theme of the symposium is Face and Interaction and thus focuses on the concept of face and its role in social interaction. As a scholarly concept face has existed for about sixty years. It was first introduced to academic discourse by Erving Goffman. Goffman created a theoretical construct and based it on the Chinese concept of face, as presented by Hsien Chin Hu (1944), in her seminal paper on Chinese face, and on some sociological theories (e.g., Emile Durkheim, 1915). Goffman’s ideas about face and facework became an inspiration for representatives of many areas of social sciences.

Face is a multidimensional concept, involving psychological and social motivation, cultural knowledge, and the ability to perform appropriate roles; and as such it deserves to be presented in an interdisciplinary perspective. Thus the main aim of the CC2013FACE Symposium, which is the first of its kind in Poland, is to provide a forum for theorists and researchers working in fields such as linguistics, sociology, social psychology, communication studies, business studies, organizational studies and philosophy, though the symposium is open to all interested parties who would like to share with us their ideas about face.

We are pleased to announce that the following scholars have accepted to address the conference as plenary speakers: